General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
I have pretty much the entire Fat Dragon "Dragon Tiles" line, and a fair number of E-Z Dungeons and E-Z Terrain lines. I've also got some of the Vyllage-on-the-Cheep sets, the WorldWorks Arena, and the Papermodel Civilizations desert sets.
So far, probably not too different from what the rest of you have done or are planning to do.
However, there are some additional tricks. For example, one of my kids had an art project for school where she was supposed to make a ceremonial gateway, similar to the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
Rather than starting from a shoebox, as recommended in her school assignment, we used the gate, towers, and wall models from the WorldWorks ArenaWorks set.
We printed them to 'flat' PDF with PDFCreator—Inkscape won't read the embedded images directly in the WorldWorks PDFs—then modified the designs and textures in Inkscape, adding vines, leaves and cracks to create an 'older' look, and adding bas-relief animal designs and inscriptions along the walls.
After the edits, we printed the models, built them, and had a completely customized ceremonial gate that was something of the belle of the ball among the modified shoe- and cereal boxes that were turned in by the rest of her class.
I've used this technique—editing in Inkscape—to modify several tiles, e.g. putting a tan-colored wash over a set when it's supposed to be a sandy floor rather than rock, or adding images for light sources, magical effects, and whatnot. I have a swamp built from Fat Dragon's E-Z Terrain Forest & Ruins set, for example, adding more water features, darkening the overall texture, and adding a few hanging vines from strips of paper.
Cardstock models have really helped to encourage my kids to participate in building out the environments and then play in them. I strongly encourage this aspect of the hobby.
—Siran Dunmorgan
Links:
PDFCreator – Free program to allow any program (including Acrobat Reader) to print to PDF.
Inkscape – Free vector graphics program that can import and edit single pages of PDF files.
I like some of the tiles at dungeoneering.net as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
I split up maps into standard page sizes, print them out at the least expensive local place that has a color printer (currently the UPS Store does $0.35 per full color page), glue stick the pages to an appropriately size piece of foam board, then cover it all with lamination sheets to preserve and protect and allow me to use wet erase markers on them. The back can be scored in places to allow them to fold up well enough. The overall cost of materials is between $5 and $10 US.
Here's some photos of a couple of these I did for a Free RPG Day with Paizo maps (that I even had to scan and enlarge to make it happen) -
Awesome!! I'm going to do something like this. Though instead of foam core, I'm going to use my beloved vinyl tiles. Foam core is probably better, but the tiles are nice and cheap.
Might I ask you a bit about your process.
I've got a map I want to do this with. A big jpeg. What's the best way to carve it up into 8x10 or so chunks? Or did you just scan it in those chunks and crop them as you did it? Should I just open the big jpeg in an image editing program and crab a 8x10 chunk, paste it into a new file and crop the edges exactly how I want them?
While I have played with images for the purposes of putting them in a brochure or on a website, I've never tried to make a multipage image all fit together perfectly.
Any suggestions?
__________________ Matt
I just found out anemones is not spelled anenomes.
Well, you do have to resize it but if you raise the pixel level before you do so, it helps keep the image looking pretty good. Also, scan it with as high a quality as you can set the scanner to. After that, just be sure to keep the main map as a master, then use the selection tool to grab, perhaps, eight by ten inch chunks using the grid on the map itself. You can paste these into a PDF program or in Word or whatever you have just to keep them the right size and make printing them a bit easier (that's what I like to do, anyway), because it is easy to note that you have a quarter inch on each side of the image and a half inch above and below on the page. It also help to print out a small version of the map (it only needs to be in B&W) that you can mark up to help keep track of the individual sections and where you will make your selections. You might want to jot down the percentages you use as you resize things so that the process can gain some speed. I think that is about it. It'll be trial and error as you work with the process. Post here with your results and any additional tips.
Thanks for the tips, guys! I just found a local print shop and got some stuff for $.30/page! And they had heavier paper than Kinkos/Office Max! Also, since we were talking about it, I asked . . . they can print up to 15x19in pages. In color, one page that size would be $.55! I forgot to ask if they could then laminate that page, but I'm pretty excited about everything after getting gouged at the previous stores I went to.
~
Glad that worked out for you! I learned this a while back and it saved me hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars over the years.
I've been using 0one 2D tiles and Skeleton Key for years, mixing them up on a dry erase battlemap, and mixing them with other 2D maps i've found online. I also like to use dungeon tiles from the Descent boardgame and the occasional WotC dungeon tile. I recently bought Fat Dragon's EX Dungeon and i've been tinkering with that. I have a ton of wall sections and props printed, but i haven't gotten around to making anything except for one door. I also bought some WorldWorks tiles and printed them, but they're not constructed yet.
For me, it's a time consumption thing, and i don't think i particularly ENJOY gluing walls together, that's another problem. And i also don't have any help for such a large project, that would also help.
I think i'll hit Michael's up for some glue though, i need to do that, and some foam core. I think my ideal dungeon is a mix of 2D/3D; high walls have a tendancy to obscure what players can see, especially given the shape of my battleboard and game room.
Oh, and i've also been buying real 3D terrain here and there for a while now; barrels, crates, trees, rocks, etc. That alone can get expensive, but the stuff is resin cast and extremely durable. I've also had some success in Pet Stores buying fish tank accessories on sale, such as ruined towers and walls.
Good point on other 3D terrain. Try going to a huge "garage sale" sometime and finding the kids toy area. Barrels, hay stacks, broken walls, whatever you can find.
The heroscapers site has a custom terrain thread with lots of tutorials and ideas, if you move to also building terrain (and usually advice on finding terrain in places you wouldn't expect, like columns in bridal outlet stores - cake decorations!).
In a terrible act of thread necromancy...I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions about WorldWorksGames products that are floating around in here.
Complexity: As a few have pointed out, some of our sets are in the "intermediate" range but its important to note that this isn't generally true of our overall catalog. Its just that we have such a wide range of terrain sets that they do tend to bounce around between beginner and intermediate levels (depending on what they are and how they function). Bread and butter terrain sets (Dungeons, Caves) are generally pretty easy to build. Most modelsets we offer are beginner level friendly.
Pricepoint: Indeed, our prices are marginally higher than some of our competitors but there are two key reasons for that. The biggest defining factor here is the sheer number of items contained in larger terrain sets. It isn't just tiles & walls but a dense compilation of props and related dressings. Just take a cruise through product descriptions and you'll get a sense of what's included. The other big X-factor here is development. A typical terrain setting is a full-time, 3 month investment, to infuse each set with an almost obsessive level of detail. Each texture is built from scratch and there are many situations where more than one person is involved with production. That said, we do recognize that some people want more of a smorgasbord, pick & choose purchase option (we're working on that one ).
Modularity Standards: You generally see many different modularity standards in our catalog. That's a consequence of being in the market for nearly 8 years and breaking new ground each consecutive year. This isn't to brag but to point out the reasons we have so much diversity in our catalog. Overall though, dimensionally, everything is compatible with everything else. In fact most of our products offer both 1" and 1.5" compatibility. We've definitely tapered off in the last few years though to a more consistent build standard. And we aren't done breaking new ground yet
If you're looking for a good place to start I would recommend the following:
For 2-D tile lovers DungeonLinX is the set to get your feet wet. There's much more than meets the eye here and it has good generic versatility:
For basic 3-D hack and slash dungeoneering Chunky Dungeons 1" is a no brainer. Beyond the basic walls and corridor sections, it's absolutely stuffed to the gills with props and other goodies.
And don't forget to swing by and pick up our free "Beginners Guide to Cardstock Modeling":
I leave it there for now but we have over 55 unique terrain settings covering Fantasy, Modern, Horror and Sci-Fi in our current catalog that I would encourage you to explore at www.worldworksgames.com (or more recently at RPGNow). If you have any specific questions or concerns you can tap into our community forums or speak directly to designers and get involved with the process at: WorldWorksGames :: Index
Thanks for listening
-Denny
__________________ Founder/Creative Director
Denny Unger
WorldWorks Games www.worldworksgames.com
Last edited by Denny; 19th June 2009 at 08:13 AM..
I own a number of Worldworks sets. I also own two Fat Dragon Games sets and a couple of small things from other companies.
In comparison, I will say that I find that the Worldworks games have more of a "Wow, that's gorgeous" factor to them. They are also more expensive, but as posted above the Worldworks sets tend to contain a heck of a lot more material.
There are some Worldworks models that are very complicated. However, their beginner models are just as simple as the Fat Dragon Games' and other companies' beginner models. What may be confusing some people in their comparison is that 1) Worldworks seems to have a more of the advanced sets than other companies; and 2) Worldworks includes sets that have simple, moderate, and very complex models contained in them.
In the long run, I do have to say that I use just about an equal amount of the Fat Dragon Games and Worldworks material in my gaming. The reason is about space. I don't have enough to have walls and doors and towers and complex stuff. I stick to boxes, barrels, tables, chairs, tombs, and other dungeon dressing. For variety, I use almost all the furniture and props I have from both companies. The biggest difference is that while the World Works set has absolutely everything in it, the Fat Dragon set has only props, so the percentage I'm actively using is different.
I really only have one complaint about the products from both companies, and that has to do with wasted cardstock. I have found that if I print exactly as they have laid out, I waste a ton of cardstock. I generally use Adobe to crop the pages so that I can print multiple items on a single sheet of cardstock. I do understand why they spread things out, allowing you to pick and choose more of what you spend your ink on.
To be fair, it's not just those two companies. I have this complaint about pretty much every cardstock scenery item I have.
Now, if I could only find some sets of bushes and trees that both looked decent and were of good quality, my 3D table would be set.
__________________ "It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. If they had talked to the rabbit, they would have figured that out."" --Prophet2b
I have a large colletion of Skeleton Key Games tiles and I love them (especially the sci fi tiles). I print them out on cardstock using an Epson color inkjet and use a paper cutter to cut them out. One important note: when you print the PDF out from Adobe Reader, be sure to select the None option under Page Scaling in the Page Handling section of the Print dialog box so the grids print out to scale (1" squares).
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